The left engine of a China Eastern Airlines plane is damaged. (Photo/Xinmin.cn)
China Eastern Airlines Flight MU736 from Sydney to Shanghai was forced to make an emergency landing Sunday night, when the Airbus A330's engine casing (or cowling) was ripped off shortly after takeoff at 20:30 AEST (1030 GMT), causing a large hole.
"The crew observed the abnormal situation of the left engine and decided to return to Sydney airport immediately," General manager of China Eastern Airlines Oceania Kathy Zhang said in a statement.
Passengers told Australian media, the aircraft was "making a massive amount of noise," and that "we went up in the air and all of a sudden ... it kind of smelled like burning."
Aircraft tracking showed the plane circling the area for one hour, while the pilots waited for a safe time to land.
There were no reported injuries to passengers during the incident and according to the Australian Associated Press, "despite the havoc, passengers applauded airline staff for their professionalism."
Aviation experts are currently conducting an investigation on the aircraft to find the exact cause of the incident.
For the passengers however, their bad luck continued Monday morning with their rescheduled fights back to Shanghai delayed yet again due to a thick fog in Sydney.
